Casting

The film begins with the Easter Rising of 1916, after which Collins (Liam Neeson) and his compatriots surrender to the British. Neeson carries off Collins's intense, earthy charisma. There's just one problem: when Neeson made this, he was 44. In 1916, Collins was 25. He was assassinated at the age of 31. Accurately, Collins is shown asking young men to kill for the Irish republican cause – but the fact that Neeson is visibly twice their age changes the tone, making him look more like a behind-the-scenes manipulator than a fellow fighter.

Imperialism

Mean streets ... the film handles the fallout from the Easter Rising brilliantly

After the Easter Rising, the film depicts the cold-blooded firing-squad executions of its leaders by the British authorities. In real life, that event pushed many Irish (and quite a few British) people into sympathy with the republican cause. In the film, it's brilliantly and unflinchingly handled and has much the same effect. It's more of a challenge to maintain sympathy for the republicans when they too start killing people, but most of the time director Neil Jordan does an impressive job of balancing the humanity of the individuals concerned with an accurate picture of the fierceness of the fight.

Violence

Land on the run ... but Jordan exaggerates a massacre

At Croke Park football ground, a crowd is watching a match. British armoured vehicles roll into the ground and, without warning, open fire on players and spectators. There was a horrific massacre at Croke Park by the Auxiliaries and the Black and Tans in 1920, known as Bloody Sunday (not to be confused with the 1972 Bloody Sunday). If you've watched this scene, you'll be surprised that only 14 civilians died: the British are shown firing into dense crowds with the machine guns mounted on their armoured vehicles. In real life, the armoured vehicles stopped outside Croke Park and the shooting was done by hand. The reality of Bloody Sunday is terrible – yet apparently not terrible enough for this movie, which exaggerates it. "The reason I did it really is because I wanted the scene to last 30 seconds," Neil Jordan said. That 30 seconds costs this movie a lot of credibility. British imperial history is chock-full of massacres, genocides, unjust wars, famines and so on, and racks up a death toll in many millions. With so many real atrocities to choose from, you don't need to make things up.

Murder

Making bad ... the film feeds rumours that De Valera was responsible for Collins's assassination

The movie shows political leader Éamon de Valera (Alan Rickman) setting Collins up to lead negotiations in London, knowing it will be impossible to secure either full republican status or a united Ireland. Secretly, he hopes that Collins will take the fall for the concessions. That is a historically justifiable view. What is not so justifiable is that the film goes on to imply strongly that De Valera was behind Collins's assassination. A fictional teenage boy (played by a young Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is shown acting as De Valera's loyal spy and messenger, and afterwards shooting Collins in an ambush. In real life, though they fought each other in the civil war, De Valera wanted to negotiate with Collins. He was not involved in the ambush: actually, he tried to stop it. "I don't mean to imply that De Valera had anything to do with the assassination," said Jordan. Really? Then why identify De Valera's boy as the assassin, and why end the movie on a quote from the real De Valera which is made to sound bitter and possibly guilty: "History will record the greatness of Michael Collins, and it will be at my expense"?